Saturday, November 18, 2017

Unite the League: Mera from DC Comics Multiverse: Justice League by Mattel

So, what did you think of Justice League? I liked it! In fact, I loved it! As a DC fan, getting the chance to watch the Justice League interact and just be heroic on screen was a magical experience. I was giddy and enthusiastic the whole way through! Now I can definitely understand why not everyone is going to appreciate this movie but I'm nuts about it (I'll probably be talking more about it on the Confirmed Epic Podcast next week). Now let's talk about one of my disappointments (which I really don't think is a spoiler, but your mileage may vary): Mera has a very, very small role in the movie. Maybe 5 minutes of screen time. I assumed she wasn't going to have a starring role but I did think she would play a bigger part throughout considering her prevalence in marketing materials. She'll definitely have a much larger role in next year's Aquaman so I guess we should consider her appearance in Justice League to be similar to the cameos of the Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman in BvS. This Mera figure is an Amazon exclusive and just started shipping in the past week or two. Let's take a closer look at her after the break...

* Mera is definitely one of the nicest figures in Mattel's Justice League subset of the DC Comics Multiverse line. Take a cool character like Mera who hasn't been featured in any of Mattel's DC lines and add in a great sculpt that shows off her detailed Atlantean armor and you have a winner. This is a pretty nice looking figure overall certainly befitting a Queen of Atlantis.

* Mera's articulation, while still a step behind what Hasbro is doing in Marvel Legends, is pretty good. Rather than the H-hinged hips that still show up in this line Mera has standard swivel/hinge hips that work so much better. Most of her joints (other than her neck, due to the hair) have a solid range of motion, too.

* Here's a close up so you can see the detail and paintwork on Mera's armor. This is quite nice and shows off the high quality work Mattel is capable of when working on a cool design.

* Mera includes a spear that has a small barb on the back. It's not the most impressive looking weapon but it definitely gets the job done and gives her something to use in fighting off Parademons.

* One of the coolest aspects of the figure are these swappable hands that depict Mera manipulating the water around her. The water effects are molded in translucent blue plastic and feature some white paint applications to give the water a foamy, choppy appearance. The hands do swap pretty easily, too, so that's a plus. This reminds me quite a bit of the feature on the Suicide Squad Diablo figure but it seems to work a bit better.

* I saved the headsculpt for last as I'm a bit torn on it. Ultimately, after lots of back and forth, I think it's a pretty decent headsculpt. It may not quite capture Amber Heard's likeness as Mera but it definitely is a decent looking headsculpt for the character. You could easily integrate this figure into your DCUC collection (since that line never produced Mera) and fill a slot. The paintwork is clean and her Atlantean crown looks awesome.

The Negatives:

* The pegs for Mera's wrists are a but loose. This means that swapping out the hands is an easy task but sometimes while posing her the hands do tend to pop out. Make sure you don't lose them!

Mera is a Great figure! She has some cool accessories, nice paintwork and sculpting, and she absolutely fills a hole in your Mattel DC Comics collection. Mera is easily the standout in the DC Comics Multiverse: Justice League line and is worth picking up. Since she's an Amazon exclusive you don't even have to go to the trouble of tracking her down; just order her from their site with no fuss! She's definitely the figure I recommend the most from this line so far!